Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2022 i AW - Athletics Weekly Magazine

NOVEMBER 2022 AW Editorial Director Which athletes, or moments, stood out for you in 2022? For me, Jake Wightman's 1500m masterclass at the World Championships in Eugene, where he beat Jakob Ingebrigtsen at his own game, will live long in the memory. So, too, however, will the women's 1500m final on that same Hayward Field track. If ever there was an example of how brutal and cut-throat top level athletics can be, then this was it. Whereas major middle-distance races can be cagey, tactical affairs with no-one willing to play their hand, that race was quite the opposite. From the very “b” of the bang, the pace was ferocious. Gudaf Tsegay, who likes to dictate from the front, set it and was aided by her Ethiopian team-mate Hirut Meshesha. Only…

INTERVIEW GEOFF WIGHTMAN What do you think of the current domestic grassroots scene and are there any lessons from the past that could benefit today's athletes? The comparisons are very, very difficult to make because when we were running in the 1970s and 1980s, there weren't the same distractions as now. Football was another [big] sport back then and level with athletics at times before the explosion of the Premier League and Sky Sports. There weren't fast food joints, entertainment complexes, mobile phones or the internet, so when you did a hobby you could do it as much as you wanted and it didn't appear geeky or unusual. It didn't drag you away from other things. We'll not be able to rewind to that or those set of circumstances but I…

AWARDS INTERNATIONAL BRITISH JUNIOR / U20 PARA W ith three major outdoor championships, as well as an edition of the World Indoors, squeezed in, this truly has been a year like no other for the sport of athletics. There have been a huge range of performances and moments worthy of recognition but which athletes do you think have outshone the others? It's the time of year when we call on knowledgeable AW readership to make their decisions, cast their votes and crown their athletes of the year. Over the next 10 pages you will find our nominations for a variety of accolades and you can make your choices via athleticsweekly.com The winners will be published in the December issue of AW. CAST YOUR VOTES AT: athleticsweekly.com INTERNATIONAL ATHLETE OF THE YEAR MEN MONDO DUPLANTIS…

INTERVIEW FAITH KIPYEGON The inquisitive face gradually creeps into the bottom edge of the screen. Four-and a-half-year-old Alyn seemingly wants to know why this pesky journalist is taking up her mother's time and she has decided to take some affirmative action. A quick look down the video link and a quiet parental word satisfies her but it's clear there is important family business at hand. I understand completely. Faith Kipyegon flashes one of her wide, trademark grins at the appearance of her daughter at their Kenyan home. The smile returns, too, whenever she talks about her. We are speaking towards the end of what has been a precious month-long break after another year of outstanding athletic achievement – something which hasn't happened without sacrifice. When the 28-year-old's training is in full…

INTERVIEW CALLUM HAWKINS I lluminated by the bright I lights of the city's skyline, Doha's Corniche proved to be the perfect stage for Callum Hawkins as he delivered an exceptional performance to finish fourth in the marathon at the 2019 World Athletics Championships. “That is one of the best performances by a British marathon runner,” said former world 1500m record-holder Steve Cram on BBC TV at the time after the run of 2:10:57. “He was sensational.” “This is a phenomenal performance,” added cocommentator Paula Radcliffe, the former women's world marathon record-holder. “He has now gained a huge amount of respect from marathon runners across the world. They will have watched that performance and they'll be factoring him in for [next year's] Tokyo [Olympics].” Hawkins was at the vanguard of Scotland's endurance…

In the October issue of AW, John Shepherd eloquently expressed some of the myriad issues facing coaches in the current climate. Following on from that article, British Athletics’ head of coach development Jackie Newton writes about the efforts being made to address some of the key challenges. During the summer of 2021, a coaching consultation took place across the UK to help UK Athletics better understand the issues and the challenges which coaches across the UK are facing. Out of this consultation, the UK Wide Coaching Strategy was created which identified four key themes for change: ■ Event discipline specific strategies ■ Visibility of coaches ■ Wellbeing of coaches ■ Regulation of the current coaching system Event discipline specific strategies Through the consultation, coaches expressed the need for more event-specific…

PERFORMANCE My IT band gets more painful after rest. Is this normal and what's the best way to recover? I would suggest this isn't typical because an IT band, if there is an issue and it's really tight, will tend to tighten up over the course of a run. You tend to find that people are in pain when they're running or walking but, when they stop, the pain usually goes away. The fact that it's worse after rest suggests to me that it's really quite painful during the run and then afterwards, because there's potentially a bit of inflammation, that increases your symptoms at rest. You need to ask yourself the question, is this really sore at die time of the run and should you be pushing through that?…

OVERSEAS NETHERLANDS TCS Amsterdam Marathon, October 16 Nine men broke 2:06 and three women wen inside 2:19 as Almaz Ayana won in 2:17:20 and was followed home by fellow debutante Genzebe Dibaba, with the 1500m world record—holder running 2:18:05, Tsegaye Getachew won the men's race in a PB of 2:04:49. Men: Mar: 1 Tsegay Getachew ETH 2:04:49; 2 T Kipruto KEN 2:04:54; 3 B Asmara ETH 2:04:57; 4 A Kiptoo KEN 2:05:04;5 H Mohamed ETH 2:05:05; 6 C Kotut KEN 2:05:15); 7 N Kigen KEN 2:05:32; 8 L Korir KEN 2:05:41;; 9 A Mamo ETH 2:05:45; 10 J Boi KEN 2:06:34 Women: Mar: 1A Ayana ETH 2:17:20;2 G Dibaba ETH 2:18:05;3 T Gemechu ETH 2:18:59;4 N Amanuel ERI 2:22:45;5 R Chelim BRN 2:23:12;6 Z Gerado ETH 2:24:21; 7 C Chepchirchir…

DIP FINISH Sydney McLaughlin and Marcel Hug are the only track and field athletes in the top 100 of a list of the most marketable sports people published by SportsPro. McLaughlin, the Olympic and world 400m hurdles gold medallist and world record-holder, places 41st on the list, whereas six-time Paralympic champion Hug is 99th. The “SportsPro 50MM” is now in its 13th year and features more women than ever before in 2022. The most dominant sport is soccer, too. But there is no place in the list for athletes such as Mondo Duplantis, Eliud Kipchoge, Jakob Ingebrigtsen or Dina Asher-Smith. Footballer Cristiano Ronaldo is the No.l most marketable sportsperson followed by tennis player Serena Williams, F1 driver Lewis Hamilton, basketball player LeBron James, footballer Lionel Messi and tennis player Naomi…

DIGEST Riga's reputation as one of the world's top running destinations is set to soar to another level in 2023, writes Jason Henderson. The Latvian capital will stage the inaugural World Road Running Championships in the autumn, when global champions will be crowned in not only the halfmarathon but 5km and the mile. “It is a unique new event, a completely new concept,” says Aigars Nords, head of the organising committee. “We are used to celebrating track races or single events like a half marathon or full marathon, but this is a complete festival of road racing. To experience three magical road race distances is quite special. Latvia is flat so we will have some fast times. “To have a world championships in the road mile is quite something too,”…

DIGEST KATHARINE MERRY Recent weeks have seen plenty of headlines created around our sport in relation to doping and, whenever one of these stories comes out, it produces a complex melting pot of emotions for me. There's the concern around how this news — whether it's the spate of Kenyan distance runners testing positive or 2012 Olympic 400m hurdles champion Natalia Antyukh being set to lose her gold medal — makes the sport look, plus there's that sinking feeling of “here we go again” and a deep sadness of, unfortunately, not being surprised. You want to be shocked, you want to be appalled but, with Russian athlete Antyukh, that wasn't the case I'm afraid. There are encouraging aspects to it all though, too. I'm disappointed for the sport but I'm also…

MY GREATEST RACE RICHARD WHITEHEAD European Para Athletics Championships, Grosseto, June 12, 2016 – T42 100m, first place, 12.21 The Europeans were a few weeks before I turned 40 but I'd only been sprinting since around 2010 so I think my athletic age was still quite young. I hadn't really had a lot of injury issues. I felt that I had a lot of marginal gains to take advantage of and lots of areas to improve on whether that was sports science, nutrition or just pure power on the track. That was a challenge not only for myself but also for my coach and for my immediate team. The hard work that I put into getting towards the 2016 Paralympics was to help me win the 100m as well as the…

DOMINANT DUPLANTIS Mondo Duplantis brought the World Championships to a close – and the house down at Hayward Field – by breaking the pole vault world record for the fifth time in his already glittering career. His first world title arrived indoors in Belgrade during the spring, when he cleared 6.20m to raise the standard, but he went one centimetre further in Oregon with another spectacular leap into the history books. KING KIPCHOGE The marathon has never seen anyone like Eliud Kipchoge. The Kenyan, who races sparingly, had begun his year with victory at the Tokyo Marathon but he arrived in Berlin in September with a clearly stated intention of breaking his world record time of 2:01:39, which was also set in the German capital. The 37-year-old flew through halfwayunder…

If you cast your mind back to the pandemic, you may remember the significant number of people who took up running during lockdown. These were individuals that, before Covid-19, hadn't really engaged with the sport and the hope was that, ultimately, they would take the next steps with their new hobby and sign up to mass participation events when life returned to something approaching normality. However, that didn't quite turn out to be the case. The current trend actually shows that entries are significantly lower than the pre-pandemic levels of 2019. According to Find A Race, events earlier this year were seeing an average of 26 per cent fewer submissions in comparison to three years ago. The two disciplines which have suffered the biggest downfall in participation – a decrease…

OFFICIALS Matthew Dalton of Peterborough & Nene Valley AC (PANVAC) has been a timekeeper and field judge for about eight years, off dating 20-25 times a year. Typically his day begins by arriving an hour before the start of a meeting, followed by a briefing, held by the chief timekeeper about 20 minutes’ beforehand. “Unless it's a big match, the chief will ask for the level of the timekeepers (levels 1-4), quickly assimilate that information and hand out positions according to what they think is appropriate,” says Dalton. “At a big match, that information is known to the chief in advance. If you're timing a race of800m runners, you want to select certain individuals in a certain way to to get the most accurate results possible, if you've got experience…

PERFORMANCE NEWS WEARING COMPRESSION SOCKS MAY RELIEVE GI ISSUES Researchers are suggesting an unlikely solution to “runner's tummy”, the exercise-induced gastrointestinal syndrome which results in uncomfortable GI symptoms and plagues up to 90 per cent of long-distance runners: wear compression socks. In a study published recently in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, Kate Edwards, a sports scientist at the University of Tasmania in Australia found that compression socks or leg sleeves may reduce GI damage that causes cramping, nausea, constipation and diarrhoea in endurance athletes. Previous research had shown that runner's tummy might be the result of blood being redirected away from the intestinal muscles to the leg muscles in marathon distances. Since compression socks allegedly enhance blood flow to the trunk by reducing pooling in the lower legs,…

PERFORMANCE APPLIANCE OF SCIENCE Plyometric drills such as drop jumps, hops and bounds capitalise on the stretchreflex capacity of our muscles and other soft tissue. When an athlete lands from a jump and prepares to leap back upwards or forwards, the muscles of the ankle, knee and hip will perform what's known as an eccentric muscular lengthening action. They then shorten whilst performing the reactive concentric muscular action to power the athlete up and/or forwards. This is a largely involuntary or non-volitional, process (making it different from weight training) and a natural consequence of our body's soft tissue architecture. However, this stretch-reflex response can be improved upon. Sports science shows how repeated plyometric training can increase power output, speed of muscular action and increase leg stiffness. It can improve maximal strength,…

DIGEST STEPHEN MAGUIRE Stephen Maguire's return to British Athletics has not brought with it a string of buzzwords or promises to wave a magic wand. “Stability and understanding” are what he intends to build the performance culture of the national team around in his new role as Technical Director. The former head of sprints and relays — who masterminded the men's 4x100m 2017 world gold medal-winning performance in London, among other things — was persuaded back to the governing body by new CEO Jack Buckner. He had departed to a role with Sport Ireland after losing out to Christian Malcolm for the position of head coach. With the Welshman's position having been made redundant, Maguire has been handed the reins and has now been in place for a little over a…

Athletes using their platform and profile to bring about change is nothing new but, in recent years, an increasing number of sportsmen and women have been willing to proactively back causes or add their voice to issues about which they feel passionate. Working out how best to do that is not always straightforward, however, and UK Sport recently partnered with The True Athlete Project to launch a six-month programme to help funded athletes from a variety of sports use their platform to inspire, facilitate and enable positive change. It is an educational process that gives them the tools to understand, not only their own values, but how to extend these into the world and create positive change in a chosen area. The idea was sparked by an athlete consultation conducted…

SPOTLIGHT VERITY OCKENDEN I remember vividly my first day of middle school as a small, unshaped person in an oversized uniform. I inscribed my name voraciously in my most perfect handwriting on every crisp new textbook we received. Best of all, I was asked to go home and decorate my Physical Education folder with the image of a person who inspired me. I knew immediately who it would be. I had watched her from the floor of my grandparents’ living room that summer, my boggling eyes mere inches from the screen because sitting on the sofa was too far from the heat of the action. I knew nothing about running, and everything about ponies and ballerinas, but every time Kelly Holmes set foot on that Olympic track in Athens, I just…

FOCUS EVENTS My first running race, the 2011 Bath Half, was a life-changing moment for me as it is for many. I took real pride in that first finisher t-shirt and medal, oblivious to the unnecessary environmental costs (more anon). I felt a little uncomfortable with the fields of plastic bottles and gel wrappers scattered down the road in our wake. It all gets collected for recycling by the lovely volunteers later, right? As well as creating some 40,000 medals and 40,000 t-shirts, the 2018 London Marathon used 920,000 plastic bottles. That's not far off one million plastic bottles. For just 40,000 runners. Post-race the City of Westminster collected 5200 kilograms of rubbish and 3500 kilograms of recycling from the streets, including 47,000 plastic bottles – hopefully the other 873,000 were…

SPOTLIGHT STARTERS “ON YOUR MARKS.” At the 2009 World Athletics Championships in Berlin, the field for the 100m final included the fastest man in history. He smiled at the camera and produced his famous pose before accepting the invitation to his blocks. His nervous rivals were beholden to superstition. They jumped on the spot, fiddled with jewellery, sipped water, and prayed. “SET” Over 50,000 fans at the Olympiastadion held their breath, and their phones. They were anticipating the new world record that a global audience of 95 million were about to witness. The sprinters were poised. The world now waited on one man. His name was Alan. BANG! You may not have heard of Alan Bell, but you've almost certainly heard his gun. Now in his 70s, he remains the highest-ranked…

Answers in the December issue of AW OCTOBER ANSWERS: 1 March 29th 1981. Men's race shared winners – Dick Beardsley and Inge Simonsen. Women's race winner – Joyce Smith; 2 4m {13 feet); 3 James Dasaolu; 4 Mondo Duplantis, Sydney McLaughlin and Tobi Amusan; 5 Sonia O'Sullivan; 6 Rio Mitcham; 7 Quanera Hayes – women's 400m, Benjamin Kigen – men's 3000m steeplechase, Christine Mboma – women's 200m, Devon Allen – men's 110m hurdles; 8 12th October 2019; 9 Usain Bolt; 10 Defensive tackle. San Francisco 49ers, Arizona Cardinals, New York jets, Dallas Cowboys, Chicago Bears, Miami Dolphins…

FIXTURES NOVEMBER 12 British Athletics Cross Challenge Teardrop Lakes, Milton Keynes britishathletics.org.uk NOVEMBER 13 Beirut Marathon beirutmarathon.org Athens Marathon. The Authentic athensauthenticmarathon.gr Regents Park 10km London nice-work.org.uk NOVEMBER 19 SEAA London Cross Country Championships Parliament Hill seaa.org.uk Midland Counties 5 & 7 mile Cross Country Championships Nottingham midlandathletics.org.uk Eastern AA Cross Country Championships Biggleswade easternaa.com Welsh Inter-Schools/Inter-Regional Cross Country Championships Monmouth welshathletics.org NOVEMBER 20 XL Cross Internacional de Italica Seville worldathletics.org Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon hkmarathon.com Brampton to Carlisle 10-mile Road Race borderharriers.co.uk Derby 10-mile Road Race derbylO.co.uk Stockport 10-mile Road Race stkl0.co.uk Bury 10km runforall.com Falkirk Half Marathon falkirkhalfmarathon.co.uk NOVEMBER 26 British Athletics Cross Challenge & European Cross Country Trials Sefton Park, Liverpool britishathletics.org.uk NOVEMBER 27 Shanghai International Marathon worldathletics.org Cross Internacional de la Constitucion Alcobendas – Memorial…